By Pat Harty

IOWA CITY, Iowa – One thing I’ve learned from covering the Iowa football team for over 30 years is to not read too much into a small sample size, like for example, the annual Kids Day practice.

That means both the good and the bad.

If the offense had performed well at Kids Day under new offensive coordinator Tim Lester, I would have responded with guarded optimism because it was just one of nearly a month’s worth of preseason practices.

But the offense, and especially the quarterbacks, didn’t look very good.

The running backs showed promise and were the beneficiaries of some decent run blocking, though, it’s hard to know for sure when so little of the Kids Day practice featured full-scale hitting.

Perhaps the biggest disappointment from the Kids Day practice was the performance of sixth-year senior quarterback Cade McNamara, who is currently listed as the starter, but is also coming off his second straight season-ending knee injury.

To say that McNamara struggled would be an understatement.

He was inaccurate at times, and he made some questionable throws, including one that would have likely resulted in a pick six for free safety Quinn Schulte if it had been a live scrimmage.

McNamara had a chance to show fans and the media that he deserved to be the starter and that he was ready and able to lift the offense to a new level, but he failed to do so.

If anything, the Kids Day practice was a step back for McNamara. You kept waiting for him to show some of the skills that helped him lead Michigan to the 2021 Big Ten title, but it just didn’t happen.

And while Northwestern transfer Brendan Sullivan performed better than McNamara at Kids Day, Sullivan still completed less than 50 percent of his passes.

The passing game rarely looked cohesive on Saturday no matter who was behind center. Sullivan did have some success running the two-minute offense, but he didn’t throw many passes down field, as was the case with all the quarterbacks.

But again, it was just one practice in which starting tight end Luke Lachey and several receivers didn’t participate due to minor injuries.

That isn’t necessarily an excuse for McNamara, but missing some key pieces obviously didn’t help his cause.

Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz was asked if the quarterback play on Saturday was typical of the nine practices so far this preseason.

“That’s probably a fair assessment,” Ferentz said. “Like everything, not consistent.”

McNamara actually was consistent on Saturday, just in the wrong way.

Perhaps the biggest concern about the 24-year-old McNamara is that he didn’t look very mobile, and he looked slow running from the pocket.

McNamara looked like a quarterback that was coming off back-to-back season-ending knee injuries.

His decision making also surprisingly left something to be desired.

On Schulte’s interception, McNamara stared down his receiver. Schulte then jumped on the route, because with all his experience, he saw the pass coming.

Scott Dochterman from the Athletic wrote after the Kids Day practice that Iowa needs to change the pecking order at quarterback, or at least give serious consideration to moving Brendan Sullivan ahead of McNamara.

I’m not ready to go that far after watching just one practice.

But maybe we’re seeing why Iowa added Sullivan from the transfer portal as sort of an insurance policy just in case McNamara isn’t up the challenge of being the starter.

And maybe we’re seeing why Sullivan chose the Hawkeyes even with McNamara considered the starter.

Iowa took a gamble when it listed McNamara as the starter heading into preseason practice rather than having it be an open competition.

The starter gets most of the reps with the No. 1 offense in practice, but maybe it’s time to give Sullivan more reps with the No. 1 offense to see what he can do.

Sullivan, who started eight games for Northwestern, has only been a Hawkeye since June, so he’s having to learn at an accelerated pace.

When asked if Sullivan was catching up to McNamara, Kirk Ferentz said:

“We’ll see. That’s the good thing, we’ve got a couple weeks here to evaluate the team. But I think, considering he (Sullivan) got here in June, he’s making up for some lost ground.”

One thing that seemed obvious on Saturday is that Sullivan is a better runner than McNamara.

That could be because of McNamara’s injuries, or it could just be that Sullivan is a better runner.

Kirk Ferentz has a history of being very loyal to his starting quarterback, and some will say he is too loyal.

McNamara hasn’t been fully healthy since he transferred to Iowa and he certainly looked less than 100 percent on Saturday, especially when he tried to run, and that’s a concern.

Iowa still has nearly three weeks until its season opener against Illinois State on Aug. 31 at Kinnick Stadium, so there still is plenty of time for the quarterback situation to sort itself out.

As I previously stated, I’m not ready to demote McNamara, but with how he played on Saturday, it might be time to give Sullivan an equal amount of reps with the No. 1 offense.

That’s probably how it should have been from the beginning because McNamara isn’t entitled to the starting position.

He started the first five games last season and barely completed 50 percent of his passes.

It’s reasonable to believe that McNamara’s leash is much shorter this season compared to last season when Deacon Hill was his backup.

Hill started the final nine games after McNamara was injured, but Hill appeared to be overmatched and he has since transferred to Utah Tech.

It seems unlikely that Sullivan would have transferred to Iowa if he didn’t think he had  a chance to start, or at least contribute this season.

It also seems unlikely that Kirk Ferentz would split the playing time between McNamara and Sullivan because that just isn’t how Kirk Ferentz operates.

The starting position appears to be McNamara’s to lose, and if the Kids Day practice is an indication, that could ultimately happen.

The question is will it happen before the season opener?

That would seem unlikely based on Kirk Ferentz’s track record.